What’s On Your Nightstand?: The Tradition Continues
Long-time readers can skip most of this post if they like… I’ve been blogging as “The Book Maven” since August 2004, when my then-boss at AOL asked me to start a blog and choose a name for it. At the time, 
the book of the moment was Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, in which he talks about different kinds of people (e.g., “connectors”) including “mavens.” When this site becomes The Book Studio next week, I’ll still be The Book Maven here, on my more personal blog, and maybe somewhere else, too (must keep you guessing!).
I liked the concept, but I also loved the word. It’s Yiddish, and means (as I’ve mentioned in the past) both “expert” and “freak.” It makes sense. After all, the more specialized one’s knowledge in a single area, the more one tends toward freakishness. In a good way. A bookseller once described me as “the self-titled Book Maven,” which I suppose was meant to be disparaging. How dare I deem myself an “expert?”
I was thinking more of the “freak” side, you see, when I chose that moniker.
One of my regular blog entries in all of the places I’ve blogged has been to ask readers “What’s on your nightstand?” I can’t stop it now. As my daughters (AKA “The Mini Mavens”) squawk whenever we try to skip a stop on our annual Cape Cod vacation: “It’s a tradition!”
Of course, there are new ways to ask people what they’re reading, now. I can ask on Facebook, and this morning, I asked on Twitter and got a slew of replies from the early-morning tweeple (I’ll have to “re-tweet” my question later, for the office Twitterers). But on Twitter, at least, responses are severely limited. I thought I’d ask here, so that anyone can leave a list as long as they like of the book stacks by their beds.
What’s on your nightstand? I really want to know, as much now as I did nearly five years ago.
on April 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 am
I LOVE to hear about what other people are reading! I made it my personal goal this year to read 100 books…I’m not tracking quite to where I need to be, but I’m working hard to make it as close as possible. With iPods, Tivos, and everything else available for portable entertainment, I had gotten away from my first love, reading–and I made a commitment this year was going to change.
Still on my nightstand, but fully read, are THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and LOOT. They just haven’t moved to the bookshelf yet. Both were great books–completely, 180 degrees apart in topic, but wonderful books. Can’t wait for the next one from DRAGON’s author, and I’m very sad he’s not alive to write more.
I’m currently reading THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE: A SINNER’S SEMESTER AT AMERICA’S HOLIEST UNIVERSITY by Kevin Roose, whom I first discovered via Twitter. It’s a book about him transferring from Brown to Liberty University (undercover) to discover what an evangelical education was all about. I am on page 100 and really find it fascinating, especially because I have a lot of very ardent evangelical friends and I never quite understand their zeal and commitment–so this book is helping me a little!
On deck are LITTLE BEE by Chris Cleve, which I keep hearing raves about, and IT SUCKED AND THEN I CRIED, by dooce.com mommyblogger Heather Anderson. I went to her book signing in Greenwich Village last week when I happened to be in NYC for work, and there’s always something exciting about reading a book that you feel more of a personal connection to because of an experience like that!
Can’t wait to read everyone’s posts! Thanks Book Maven!
on April 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Lately I’ve been feeling a little guilty about all the books on my nightstand but I’m hoping to finish all of them this month.
Sonata for Miriam - Linda Olsson. I loved Astrid and Veronika so I had to check this one out.
The Pleasures of Staying in Touch: Writing Memorable Letters by Jennifer Williams.
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction edited by Richard Bausch. Great anthology with short stories by Baldwin, Faulkner, Kafka, Porter, and more.
Life is a Verb - Patti Digh.
The Film Club - David Gilmour. It’s a memoir about a father who allows his son to drop out of school as long as the son agrees to watch three films a day with his dad.
Black Candle by Chitra Divakaruni. It’s one of my favorite volumes of poetry.
The Book of the Unknown by Jonathon Keats. Collection of short stories.
We never talk about my brother by Peter S. Beagle. A collection of short stories by the author of A Fine and Private Place.
Okay so that’s my nightstand. Now you see why I feel a little guilty?
on April 2nd, 2009 at 9:44 am
One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty
Cheever: A Life, Blake Bailey
A pile of New Yorker magazines
The Summing Up, W. Somerset Maugham
The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand, Jim Harrison
Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, Robert Kaplan
on April 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
Thanks for these…they’re fascinating! Kerri, all of our New Yorker, Atlantic, Esquire, TIME, and Harper’s are on Mr. Bethanne’s side of the bed. He’s a…maghag.
on April 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 am
What I’m reading now…lessee…
1. Scientific American Mind - just discovered this magazine and it’s fascinating stuff. And I have no idea how this particular issue found its way from my doctor’s office to my home.
2. The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey - just finished it actually since Shaun asked me to write a blurb for him. Great horrifying book. Talented writer, this one!
3. Memoirs of the Second World War by Winston Churchill
4. Going over edits on my next thriller novel VICARIOUS as well as some of the scripts for season one of my TV series THE FIXER.
Great thread - can’t wait to see more responses!
Best,
Jon
on April 2nd, 2009 at 10:15 am
Maghag! Excellent. This perfectly describes my mag-hoarding husband, a man who won’t even let me throw away old Patagonia catalogs.
on April 2nd, 2009 at 10:52 am
Currently…
A stack of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee mysteries; “One Yellow Fearful Eye” is next.
Also: “Revolution In The Air: the Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973″ by Clinton Heylin. Should be interesting enough to get revved up for Bob’s new release later this month.
on April 2nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I love the term “maghag”! Totally describes me. New magazine obsession: National Geographic Traveler.
But in terms of actual book reading, I’m in the middle of Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson. I adore her. The sheer beauty and quirkiness of this novel (part murder mystery, part ghost story, part coming-of-age story) is worth the read.
Next up: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
on April 2nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Oh my - since my nightstand piles nearly smothered me last night, I feel I should unburden myself — at least in a virtual manner. I’m just about finished with “The Gathering” by Anne Enright. Next is “A Mercy,” by Toni Morrison. After that, a bit of mind candy — “Miles Errant,” a compilation of several novels, and “Paladin of Souls,” both by Lois McMaster Bujold. Then (on your recommendation, Book Maven) “A Sparrow,” by Mary Doria Russell. I’m also in the middle of “The Heart of Christianity,” by Marcus Borg, a book I’m reading in connection with my adult education class at church, as well as “Inkdeath” and “The Cricket in Times Square,” both of which I’m reading aloud with my children. Also recently received from Powell’s - “Devil’s Brood” by Sharon Kay Penman. And of course I could go on…
on April 3rd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
My somewhat bare nightstand rests easy under the insignificant weight of free time:
1.Watchmen - Alan Moore (social commentary + super heroes + murder mystery=a revolutionary turn for graphic novels
2. Salem’s Lot - Stephen King (which is the only book that has had the hairs on the back of my neck to stand at attention - not to mention causing me constantly looking over my shoulder)
on April 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I love this feature! But I always end up with nightstand-envy.
Recently finished One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty (kudos to Kerri), Little Dorrit by Dickens, and The Pope’s Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of the New Elite by David McWilliams.
Currently, working on:
Ulysses by James Joyce (so close to the end…)
Rice by Nikky Finney (poetry)
a handful of medical texts for dummies, writers, and other people you don’t want operating on you
on April 7th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Love this question. It’s one I’ve been asked on a job interview once and had no problem answering! I have since asked the authors I interview this question. Only one said she had her own book on her nightstand.
Books on my nightstand are a soothing transition into dreamland snoozing…
Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom by B.K.S. Iyengar
1) The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferrucci
2) The Laughter of My Father by Carlos Buloson
Inspiration Sandwhich by SARK
3) My Grateful Journal + writing noteBOOK ( mostly of dreams or pre-snooze ideas)
4) Love, a Fruit Always in Season: Daily Meditations from the Words of Mother 5) Teresa of Calcutta
6) Write to Right by Julia Cameron
7) Essential Rumi
on May 21st, 2009 at 1:13 am
this is a question i ask often. i am embarassed to say that i have a very large nightstand, and currently in queue or active reading:
Stendahl–Red and Black
Maugham-Ashenden
Euripedes-Ten plays
V. Woolf–Writer’s Diary
Mary Oliver–Rules for the Dance
Plath-Unabridged Journals
Showalter-Jury of Her Peers
McCallum-Smith–Slipping the Moorings
Trollope-Framley Parsonage
E. Bishop-selected Letters
Several works on Baudelaire, Poe, and Baudelaire *and* Poe
and an ungodly amount of periodicals.
karen
on July 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 am
Thanks for sharing this!
I bookmarked this site!
It’s nowledgeable!
Thx a lot!